13 November 2012

CAESAR'S BAY AND WATERFRONT AFTER HURRICANE SANDY'S VISIT

The Belt Parkway Waterfront is one of my favorite places to run. I would run from home to Caesar's Bay then toward the Verrazano Bridge, along the water with no interference from vehicular traffic. The terrain is mostly flat so most of the time I would traverse the foot-bridge near Bay 16th Street, for a little hill-training. Near where the path splits into pedestrians and cyclists', I would go up the steps to Bay 8th Street, again for hill-training. Most of the time I would go past the first set of bench, after the split, for a total of about 10 km round-trip. For long runs I would go as far as Owl's Head Pier. Years ago, I used to run to Owl's Head then take the bus back but in recent years I can go out and back on foot only.Today was the first time I ran along the Belt Parkway Waterfront since Hurricane Sandy's visit. Days ago, driving on the Belt I could see that some sections of the metal fence were no longer there. Today I got a close-up of the damage, which was extensive. I suppose the wave, water, and wind at some point broke the fence sections and left the fence all mangled. After the hurricane, park personnel would arrive with the proper tools to separate the damaged pieces. Who knows, maybe the hurricane actually snapped the sections off the ground. It was a powerful storm, a superstorm. No wonder the Verrazano Festival, set to run along the very same path and scheduled for November 11, did not happen. Not only the fence missing a few sections, the surface of the road was broken in many places, too. "Collapsed" is the better word to describe some of the road sections. The foot-bridge is closed off and I had to duck under it to get to the other side. Maybe the bridge was not inspected yet so it's safer to fence it off.Below are just some of the photos I took. Follow the link to see the whole set of photos.